Night cycling planning phase

One of the significant events of this holidays was the night cycling event. It was held on 28 Nov all through to 29 Nov.
I had always wanted to organise a night cycling primarily because it was not something one did very often. I had also wanted to organise one for the 64th, because I am always of the opinion (and correct me if I'm wrong) that Boys have got plenty of energy and it would be a waste of we didn't allow that expression. So that was the genesis of the idea of the night cycling trip.
Soon came a development. I realised that due to various reasons, we were not going to have a youth camp this year. Someone within the 64th Coy officer corps decided that we should extend this to the rest of the SJCp youths. Not a new idea, since its Chaplain had in fact mooted the idea some years back; just that we never got down to it.
So there it was, a humble idea became something that was for the entire youth ministry. Then came the sobering part: We had not organised something like this before. And I was the chap who had to look into it because I was the only working adult who was available; the rest had their own schedules.
Booking the bicycles was fairly easy. We only needed to pay the delivery charges ($200) for the bikes to be sent to wherever we specified.
We were hoping to hit at least 30 km. But we were worried that it would be too short and if people finished it too quickly, they would get bored. So we felt that we should plan one long one. I wanted a route that would lead us parallel to the Changi runway, then lead into East Coast. But to get there, we had to cycle from SJCp. That was the difficult part. The idea was to avoid all expressways and major roads. Drivers tend to drive very very fast and I didn't want to think of the consequences of an accident. The 2nd thing was to secure 2 safety vehicles, one to lead the bike convoy, the other to follow behind. I didn't fully grasp the significance of this gesture but as I looked back, this turned out to be one of the most important factors that ensured our safety.
So we designed a route (50km). But we when we went for a recce the following week at the actual time (night), we got a rude shock. The route included Geylang Serai area which was a favourite night spot for people looking for a snack. Busy traffic. We quickly selected a shorter route (37 km) but adventurous as I wanted to be, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. This was also confirmed by another brother of mine who generously helped out in the recce phase.
Nevertheless, God brought about a turn of events who helped us a great deal--it rained. I know it sounds strange that we should feel that way. But the fact was that, it was one of those types where it rained a while, stopped a while. At that point, my boss pointed out to me that it was going to be dangerous. The road was wet and drivers were complacent; had it been raining heavily, everyone would definitely have slowed down and at least drive very carefully.
Those were terrifying moments for me. I had to decide whether to go ahead and take the risks, or call off the whole thing and disappoint everybody. I was the one on whose decision the entire thing hung. It was not an enjoyable feeling. By then, I had experienced cyclists who were with me in the decision-making (the original cadre of officers whom I worked with couldn't make it because they were overseas, except for Melboy, to whom I am extremely grateful for his calming presence, though he himself might not believe this). We all huddled together in prayer, but we were not your archetypical bold 'prayer warriors', so to speak. We were more like a frightened bunch of people who were desperate to find out what God had in mind, but yet unsure if He had spoken.
Anyway, we decide to go ahead but made a big change. We discarded the plans altogether and made one up. We called the bike vendor to change the delivery venue from SJCp to Changi Village. We would start from there, cycle past Changi Beach, reach the road parallel to the airport runway, cut into East Coast, cycle it's entire length, then end at car park C3 where we were supposed to return the bikes the next day anyway. After that, we'd hop on a chartered bus and return to SJCp.
I'll blog about the actual trip in the next entry. But at the chronological point in time where all I've described happened, I was arguable the most frightened individual in the church.
Right, next entry--The trip itself.